Hard News: Do Want?
356 Responses
First ←Older Page 1 … 3 4 5 6 7 … 15 Newer→ Last
-
A couple of reasons. First-you can carry around a virtual library in one device. Second-you don't have to physically visit a store to buy the books you want. You might be at a cafe somewhere and decide you want to start reading a new book you just saw reviewed in your morning newspaper before you finish your flat white.
Up to a point, but I'm actually one of those cranks who doesn't get terribly bent out of shape about delayed gratification and rather likes physically visiting bookstores and browsing. I'm not being a Luddite here -- I can easily imagine people for whom downloading a pile of papers or tech manuals that, by their very nature, end up quickly becoming obsolete dust traps in dead tree form would be a boon. Ditto for visually-impaired people who may find the large print selection at the library frustratingly limited. But, for myself, I'm not quite seeing enough added value to make the leap to either a Kindle or an IPad.
Me too. I've only need reading glasses in the past couple of years or so, but I'm sometimes puzzled by claims for the readability of paper books. I find some paperbacks in particular impossible to read comfortably.
OK, Russell -- totally fair point. But isn't that more a problem with badly designed and produced paperbacks (you try and do something on the cheap and cheap and nasty is what you get more often than not) than the format itself?
-
Up to a point, but I'm actually one of those cranks who doesn't get terribly bent out of shape about delayed gratification and rather likes physically visiting bookstores and browsing.
My extremely techy business partner, a guy with a gadget for everything, still prefers to read the newspaper itself. He claims to actually like the tactile experience. Which is fine for him, his choice of configuration. No one is taking papers and books away.
-
Up to a point, but I'm actually one of those cranks who doesn't get terribly bent out of shape about delayed gratification and rather likes physically visiting bookstores and browsing.
Me too. I also don't feel the need to be able to carry my entire library around - it's a very different situation to when it became possible to mobilise your music collection, for example, but it seems that that solution is being applied as being automatically desirable for books also.
-
OK, Russell -- totally fair point. But isn't that more a problem with badly designed and produced paperbacks (you try and do something on the cheap and cheap and nasty is what you get more often than not) than the format itself?
I think some of it is also 'getting used to reading from a screen'. I like the fact I don't have to hold the stupid thing up, for starters. But I do the opposite to what others tout as the benefit - I reduce my font size, because I like having a massive screen full, moving eyes is less hassle than scrolling.
-
Me too. I also don't feel the need to be able to carry my entire library around - it's a very different situation to when it became possible to mobilise your music collection, for example, but it seems that that solution is being applied as being automatically desirable for books also.
For some people it is desirable. I'm usually reading about 25 books at once, switching between when I get bored. Ebook readers automatically remember exactly where you were up to. The device is smaller than one quite small book.
-
Typeset and paper makes a huge difference in readability. If I'm going to spend money on something I'm going to read properly, and am likely to want to read again, then it seriously influences my decision on whether to buy.
Thankfully, things seem to be improving over time.
-
Which is part of the reason Apple products tend to bemuse me. Or rather, the fans of them do. It's like they want to be limited to the small range that is Apple products, so that those choices can be configured for them. Is this some kind of uniform? Is there a secret handshake and inside privileges I'm missing out on by not getting paying the Apple-tax? If an Apple device fitted my needs well, and there wasn't a comparable device at half the price, then perhaps I'd get one, but this simply hasn't happened to me. Ever.
Ben, it's not really a cult any more -- Apple has 120 million active customer accounts via the iTunes Store.
The iPod, slated by all the cool geeks when it first came out, has come to comprehensively dominate its category and is approaching a quarter of a billion unit sales.
Yeah, sure, the iRiver or whatever had more features, but the experience wasn't as good. I actually got given a Blackberry a while ago -- I hated the fucking thing (it did strike me that it was a Windows user's phone). I paid for my iPhone, and it's the only phone I've ever really cared about.
One key to the iPhone OS is that Apple has focused on masking complexity -- you don't even get file system access. That's not going to suit people who want to engage with complexity, but it does work for people who use the devices.
-
Up to a point, but I'm actually one of those cranks who doesn't get terribly bent out of shape about delayed gratification and rather likes physically visiting bookstores and browsing.
Oh, for sure. And a quarter of a century after the CD was introduced, vinyl LPs are a growth category in the music industry. The rise of ebooks will change the paper book market, but it won't eliminate it.
-
Placing stories on a page is an artform and I want to see the paper laid out as the editors intended.
Argh! Nothing against papers, but breaking technological advancements to make them look like older technology drives me nutes.
It's like people who want a web site designed and expect it to be linear, going from one page to the other, like a book or brochure.
The advantages of papers being read online is that physical structure, space limitations, someone else's order and structure, lack of interactivity are all no longer needed.
-
The more I contemplate, the more I think this thing is positioned to fill a brand exposure gap rather than a functionality gap.
They're going to stand out like sore thumbs, where iPhones tend to be hidden in people's hands.
-
For some people it is desirable. I'm usually reading about 25 books at once, switching between when I get bored. Ebook readers automatically remember exactly where you were up to. The device is smaller than one quite small book.
Sure, for some people. But since it's always touted as one of the major benefits the assumption seems to be that it must be desirable for the large majority of people. I don't believe that's true.
-
One key to the iPhone OS is that Apple has focused on masking complexity -- you don't even get file system access. That's not going to suit people who want to engage with complexity, but it does work for people who use the devices.
Experiences differ on that. My mate was showing off his amazing new iPhone to me so I got him to plug it in in my car, and he couldn't find any of the music he wanted to play, and we got stuck with random play in the end. He reckoned it took him about 6 hours to work out how to use the player. If you've already bought into the metaphor years ago, maybe it's easier. The same most likely goes for your negative experiences with Blackberry.
Certainly people will buy something that is slickly marketed, simple in design and light on power for $, like the iPod was and still is. I'm as bemused by that phenomenon as I always have been.
-
Sure, for some people. But since it's always touted as one of the major benefits the assumption seems to be that it must be desirable for the large majority of people. I don't believe that's true.
It's not going to be as big a selling point as it is for music. It's not a negative though, it is at best something you don't care about having. Indeed, I'd agree that the large majority of people don't care to carry even one book with them most of the time.
-
Me too. I also don't feel the need to be able to carry my entire library around - it's a very different situation to when it became possible to mobilise your music collection, for example, but it seems that that solution is being applied as being automatically desirable for books also.
I enjoy hardcopy books, and I certainly don't plan on giving up my weekend visits to the secondhand bookstores down the road, but at the same time, I don't want to be limited just to the stores within easy travelling distance of my house. I read a lot of obscure (read: crappy) fantasy and scifi, and sometimes there's just no way to source a copy of part 4 of a 17 part series without ordering from out of town.
I also read an awful lot, awful fast. I read a couple of novels a week on the bus too and from work, and get twitchy if I don't have something to read while I'm travelling. Being able to get my fix without having to take my lunchtime off to go and pick something up, or without having to carry half a dozen 1,000 page epics in my backpack is quite appealing to me. I don't think it's just that e-readers are a solution looking for a problem-there are benefits to these services that will have a tangible impact on my enjoyment of literature (or pulpy trash, YMMV.)
But then I'm the sort of person who still sneers at people who have to keep their cellphones on everywhere "in case Child X has an accident" so I'm probably not the most even-handed judge of these things.
-
@BenWilson
Certainly people will buy something that is slickly marketed, simple in design and light on power for $, like the iPod was and still is. I'm as bemused by that phenomenon as I always have been
An iFad?
Still not convinced about reading a whole book on such a device (still paper, for me). I read bits and pieces online, such as newspaper articles, blogs, but they tend to be rather short. Dunno about getting through long chapters electronically. Even with google books I tend not to try and read a whole work, I just use it to look at bits and pieces of one.
On the other hand, it would save on the space.
-
I'm probably not the most even-handed judge of these things.
Being that I am quite often caught in bookstores grabbing new books, holding them up, going "ooooo so pretty" and sniffing the paper... uh, yeah, me neither.
:D -
Experiences differ on that. My mate was showing off his amazing new iPhone to me so I got him to plug it in in my car, and he couldn't find any of the music he wanted to play, and we got stuck with random play in the end. He reckoned it took him about 6 hours to work out how to use the player. If you've already bought into the metaphor years ago, maybe it's easier. The same most likely goes for your negative experiences with Blackberry.
Certainly people will buy something that is slickly marketed, simple in design and light on power for $, like the iPod was and still is. I'm as bemused by that phenomenon as I always have been.
My flatmate, a teacher in her fifties, bought an iPhone a few months ago (to go with her Powerbook naturally.) She can just barely make phonecalls on it, and I've learned to hide in my room when she tries to download a new app or apply an update. I don't believe she's ever successfully used the camera.
-
I'd agree that the large majority of people don't care to carry even one book with them most of the time.
I have my iPod with me all of the time, since it's not unusual for me to get some song stuck in my head - 'Life in a Northern Town', say - and it's nice to be able to scratch that itch. I don't think I've ever been walking along and thought 'I must read the Austerlitz chapters in War and Peace!'
I do always have a book with me in my satchel in case I find myself waiting somewhere or catching the bus in the rain, but I can't imagine ever needing a device with several thousand books on it.
-
3410,
He reckoned it took him about 6 hours to work out how to use the player. If you've already bought into the metaphor years ago, maybe it's easier.
I've had my (first) iPod for a year and a half now and I still don't really know how to use it properly, despite listening every day. I pretty much love and hate that thing in equal (large) measure.
-
I sure hope someone comes out with a bracket so I can mount my iPad on my Segway handle bars.
-
The only piece of Apple hardware I have ever bought for my personal use is my iPod Touch...and I love it to bits. It is SO cool.
But it's crippled by iTunes and the shackle to the one PC on the planet that is supposed to be my library...and I can't even delete a song, video or podcast off it without paying homage to iTunes on my one PC.
Instead of upgrading to an iPhone (as I had initially intended) I bought an Android phone (HTC Magic)...and it is everything th iPhone *should* be....but isn't. OK...there are only 25,000 apps for Android (up from 10,000 last July when I bought it)....but I only use 150-ish of them...and the 150 I have do what I need doing more than well enough.
An iPad isn't a laptop...but too big to be phone even if it had been allowed to be one. It suffers the curse of all tablets.
Let's see how it goes.
-
Nope. Another overhyped waste of time...snakes, fairytales and apples have always gone hand in hand...
-
I'm with Ben on this one
If an Apple device fitted my needs well, and there wasn't a comparable device at half the price, then perhaps I'd get one, but this simply hasn't happened to me. Ever.
The most annoying thing here is no USB port, unless you buy the camera kit (which doesn't include a camera FFS). Propitiatory plugs and sockets should be banned by international law afaiac.
We have a plethora of aftermarket devices that would be great with my Walkman but those damned connectors are iPood only (admittedly the Walkman has a propitiatory connector but I blame Apple for that too). Bluetooth? well ok but which bluetooth services does it support? printer, phone sync?
Anypod, I, for one, will not be buying one. I shall wait for the cheap Chinese knock off.
;-) -
Still not convinced about reading a whole book on such a device (still paper, for me).
I've pretty much gone the other way - I can't face extended reading sessions where I've got to hold the thing up, tilt it to the light, move it around, turn the pages, hold the thing open. E-book reading is very lazy. Laze back and look at it, and press a button every x seconds. Or put it on autoscroll, and use the buttons to adjust the speed. I don't use autoscroll myself, because if I fall asleep, I lose my place.
I don't think I've ever been walking along and thought 'I must read the Austerlitz chapters in War and Peace!'
No, I don't read when I'm walking, either :-)
I do always have a book with me in my satchel
I will forever imagine you as a satchel kind of guy now.
but I can't imagine ever needing a device with several thousand books on it
How about maybe a dozen? The enormous capacity is totally surplus, of course, a mere consequence of the fact that books have tiny data footprints. You'd have thousands not because you needed them, but because you don't need the space for anything else.
I'm not pushing the idea of e-books, btw. I'm just relaying my experiences of them over 7 years. They just become another thing you could have, not 'the one big thing'. Sometimes they're magic, like during air travel. A good paper book is too, but sometimes you're carrying a lemon, and you're stuck for the next 20 hours. Hasn't happened to me since I got e-books, there's usually something out of the couple of hundred titles that I can enjoy.
-
3410,
But it's crippled by iTunes and the shackle to the one PC on the planet that is supposed to be my library...and I can't even delete a song, video or podcast off it without paying homage to iTunes on my one PC.
Anyone used Rockbox?
Post your response…
This topic is closed.